


I'm not him

by blowingdriftingbubbles



Series: Haikyuu One Shots [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Fantasy, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Knights - Freeform, Kyoutani is a Knight, M/M, Minor Character Death, One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, aka the dead King, nothing to worry about it's too short for anyone to die anyways, yahaba is a prince
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 05:45:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8737099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blowingdriftingbubbles/pseuds/blowingdriftingbubbles
Summary: "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" coiled around Yahaba's throat like a noose.CONTEXT:Yahaba is a Prince, his father (the King) is dead, and he is on a journey with his Knights (one of whom is Kyoutani) in search of the items needed to cast the spell on the demonic Seal. The King had attempted to restore the breaking Seal, but without the items, as well as the necessary type/form of and amount of power, it had taken him an enormous amount of effort merely to maintain it. The Queen’s departure had left him heartbroken, draining his power and thus his life had been claimed in an accident while maintaining the spell cast on the Seal. Unless Yahaba wishes for a terrifying monster to escape the Seal and annihilate the entire world, he has no choice but to venture forth and prevent the Seal from breaking.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Found out that people are actually sending me prompts but Tumblr ate up the notifications so I never realised. This is a glimpse into one of the AUs that I had for Kyouhaba for quite awhile now, but was always too lazy to write (plus I already have a few fics ongoing and didn’t wanna start even more…) But if I do start it eventually, then this would be the middle-ish near end part (as an extra, probably) showing Yahaba’s insecurities. 
> 
> Sorry for not writing for awhile, been reading instead to hopefully subconsciously improve my style of writing just a tad bit.
> 
> Thank you shootingstarmemories for the prompt, everyone please send more heehee ~~because imma greedy bastard~~

_"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree"_ coiled around Yahaba's throat like a noose.

_'Like father like son. He’s going to be a failure too.’_

_‘Abandoned by the one that he loved — how pathetic.‘_

Yahaba closed his eyes and clenched his fist, jaw tensed with irritation, trying to focus on steadying his breathing. Trying to let the words float past him, unheard.

 _‘Bet that_ King _of ours didn’t treat her properly, that’s why she left.’_

Breathe in, breathe out.

_‘Better hope the Prince doesn’t “fall in love”, or else that person will suffer like his mother did and run away too.’_

Fingernails dug into his palm, the furrow of his eyebrows evidently showing the strain he felt. He unclenched his fists, reaching up to wrap his fingers over his pale bare neck, trying to release himself from the ghost of the noose tightening around his throat. There wasn’t anything there, of course, but it was strangling him, the voices, the whispers he could hear in his head, the false rumors that spoke ill of his father, of him.

They weren’t true. His father had never mistreated his mother. He had loved her to the moon and back, would have done anything for her. But being King, especially their kingdom’s King, was difficult, strenuous to the body. His mother hadn’t bothered to try support him as Queen, and left them both. Left him broken-hearted. Let him weaken and die from the stress of maintaining the Seal alone.

Yahaba wasn’t like that. Not like the ‘King’ that others saw, the cruel man who hadn’t loved his wife. Not like the Queen either, the one who hadn’t tried and had just up and left. No — he would be like the King that _he_ knew; the King who loved his Queen so, despite all her flaws.

A stray tear trailed down from the corner of his eye, trickling down his cheek as he blinked away the rest of the moisture in his eyes.

“Ya...haba?” Silver curls peeked out from under the sleeping bag beside him, shifting till Kyoutani’s face appeared, eyes blinking blearily until they focused on Yahaba, who was curled up in a tight ball facing away. “You awake?”

“Mmm yeah.” Sniff.

The last trace of sleep left Kyoutani’s face as he noticed something different. “Yahaba? Is something wrong? Are you okay?” When there was no answer, he silently slipped out from under his cover over to the other side of Yahaba’s sleeping bag to see his face.

Yahaba’s eyes were teary, each blink, each flutter of his glistening eyelashes threatening to force droplets down his cheeks. He was biting hard on his bottom lip, worrying them to muffle his sniffs. His hands tugged roughly at his collar, dragging it down as if it was suffocating him, making it hard to breathe. It exposed his collarbones, and if it were any other time Kyoutani would have been embarrassed to see them, but he had more pressing issues at hand.

Kyoutani reached out his hand to cup Yahaba’s face, thumbing under his eye to wipe away the wet trail drying on his cheeks. Yahaba stared wordlessly at him, uncontrolled tears finally dripping down with a soft sniffle. Kyoutani’s other hand went to Yahaba’s collar, and gently tugged the hands still pulling at it to his shoulder and scooped the Prince to his chest, his hands moving down to rub soothing circles on Yahaba’s back while the other patted him lightly. “It’s okay, Yahaba, it’s okay. You can cry if you need to, alright?”

Something broke in Yahaba then, the walls of the dam holding all his emotions at bay maybe, flooding him with the rush of emotions. Tears streamed down his face and strangled cries left his lips as he wrapped his arms around Kyoutani, crushing him to his chest, grabbing on like he was the only anchor he could rely on to keep him from breaking, shattering into a million pieces right there and then.

For the first time in a long while, he let himself think of his deceased father, let himself think of all the times he watched his parents dance around each other, let himself remember how his mother slowly drifted away, the Seal slowly deteriorating from his father’s lack of ability to maintain it while healing his own broken heart. How all the effort to hold himself together, to hold the _kingdom_ together, ate away his life force, leaving Yahaba alone.

For the first time, he let the loneliness wash through him.

After what seemed like hours, he finally calmed down, noticing the warm hand combing through his hair, soft murmurs whispered comfortingly by his ears, the warm body wrapped around his shaking torso from lingering sobs.

“K-Kyoutani...” Yahaba said quietly, voice hitching with little sniffles.

“Hmm?”

“P-Promise you won’t leave m-me okay? Even i-if we don’t manage to f-fix the Seal. _P-Please._ ”

Kyoutani moved away from the hug, just enough to see Yahaba’s face, and caressed his cheeks with gentleness unlike his rough callous-filled hand from sword fighting, his own face overflowing with affection.

“We’ll fix it together, no matter what. I’ll never leave you, even if it doesn’t work, okay? Do you trust me, Shigeru? We’ll fix it, together. Okay?”

“Okay, Kentarou.”

Then, in a softer voice, “I love you.”

He wouldn’t just be the apple that fell from the old lonesome tree.

_He would grow, and be even better._

**Author's Note:**

> Felt like I digressed ~~a lot~~ a little but it’s just essentially Yahaba worrying about being like his father, and having Kyoutani leave him, just like his mother left his father.
> 
> Give me a prompt on [my writing tumblr blog](blowingdriftingbubbles.tumblr.com/ask)  
> or hmu on [my main blog](bunnydesuuu.tumblr.com)  
> I’m also on [twitter](bunnydesuuu.tumblr.com)


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